Events

HONORS INSTITUTE FALL 2017 SPEAKER SERIES

CREATIVE READING SERIES 2016-2017

Louis J. Andolino in the first graduating class at Monroe Community College in 1963 and also earned degrees at Rochester Institute of Technology (AAS; BS) and Kent State University (MA) where he also did advanced graduate studies in International Relations and Comparative Politics with a concentration on the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)/Russia. Professor Andolino has been an Associate Professor and Adjunct Coordinator of History and Political Science at Monroe Community College since 2005. He has published several professional articles in books and journals, and delivered many academic papers at various conferences. As a student, teacher, academic researcher, and frequent visitor to the USSR/Russia from 1969 through the 1990s, Louis’s observations of that country have enabled him to develop a valuable perspective. Therefore, his Filling Station lecture and discussion will quite naturally be based on both his academic work and unique personal experiences. In his own words, the presentation will “include observations about such things as the historical context for understanding the transformation of the USSR to the Russian Republic and contemporary Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Putin.”

Jason Anderson (Biology): Friday, March 24, 12-12:50 pm, in 8-200

An Assistant Professor of Chemistry in the Chemistry and Geosciences Department, Jason Anderson earned a Ph.D. and M.S. in Chemistry from Purdue University. Hew has been teaching chemistry at MCC since 2009, where his primary focus has been the year-long organic chemistry course. Since coming to MCC he has continued his research interests in both organic chemistry and education, being a co-PI on several grants funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Jason’s presentation will provide an overview of his collaborative efforts with colleagues and undergraduate student researchers on two different NSF-funded grants. The first of these grants is, in Jason’s own words, “a five-year grant with the University of Rochester involving a discipline-specific project that allows an MCC student and faculty member to participate in a summer research experience focused on organometallic chemistry; specifically, we investigate the use of iron as an inexpensive catalyst in the formation of carbon-carbon bonds.” In the second project, “MCC and Rochester Institute of Technology chemistry faculty teamed up on two grants that have funded the development and implementation of a modular organic chemistry lab curriculum that utilizes a guided-inquiry approach instead of the traditional expository approach. This project, now in its second phase, is expanding the impact of this approach to other regional institutions.”

Thomas Blake is an Assistant Professor of English at MCC and the co-chair of URSICA, the undergraduate research initiative at the college. He earned his Ph.D. from Auburn University in 2009. Since then, he has published a range of articles on Cognitive Literary Theory and is currently editing The Palgrave Handbook of Affect Studies and Textual Criticism (forthcoming Summer 2017). Thomas explains his Filling Station presentation as follows: “Though Western philosophy and religion have generally regarded the body as an obstacle to ‘pure reason’ or ‘eternal Truth,’ findings in neuroscience increasingly suggest that our cognitive architecture and emotional experience steer our ethical development. By exploring the biological dimensions of both tribalism and empathy, we may better come to see how our evolutionary adaptations have burdened us with competing drives that complicate our experience of being in the world. Crucially, however, our cognitive flexibility guarantees that a neurological trait like empathy is elastic, so concern for others can be cultivated and improved over time. Much evidence indicates that reading fiction can play a major role in this process.”

THE SIXTH ACT

Bake-Off/24-Hour PlaySaturday, October 8, 7 PM, The ForumFree and Open to the Public

MCC students will meet in The Forum at 7 PM on Friday, October 7, to begin the process of creating a series of short plays from nothing. 24 hours later, those plays will be ready for an audience. Come laugh with us, cry with us, and help us celebrate the magic of co-curricular, interdisciplinary collaboration at its most immediate.

Visiting Playwright: Lauren GundersonThursday, March 9, 2017, 7 PM, Monroe A, Reading and Book-SigningFree and Open to the PublicFriday, March 10, 2017, 12 PM, 8-200, Playwriting WorkshopFree and Open to the MCC Community

Lauren Gunderson is one of the most produced playwrights in America, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for Playwriting, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s 3-Year Residency with Marin Theatre Co. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her work has been commissioned, produced, and developed at companies across the US including South Cost Rep (Emilie, Silent Sky), The Kennedy Center (The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful And Her Dog!), The O’Neill, The Denver Center, Berkeley Rep, Shotgun Players, TheatreWorks, Crowded Fire, San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre, Synchronicity, Olney Theatre, Geva, and more. Her work is published at Playscripts (I and You, Exit, Pursued By A Bear, and Toil And Trouble), Dramatists (Silent Sky, Bauer) and Samuel French (Emilie). She is a Playwright in Residence at The Playwrights Foundation, and a proud Dramatists Guild member. She is from Atlanta, GA, and lives in San Francisco. LaurenGunderson.com and @LalaTellsAStory.

Remembrance ReadingMonday, April 24, 12 PM, The ForumFree and Open to the PublicIn Collaboration with the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Project

In commemoration of Yom HaShoah, The Sixth Act is collaborating with MCC’s HGHRP to participate in the National Jewish Theater Foundation’s nationwide Remembrance Readings. The Sixth Act will join hundreds of organizations around the country by selecting one short play from the NTJF catalogue of nearly 600 plays, presenting that play as a staged reading on Yom HaShoah, and then inviting audience members into a conversation about the lessons of the Holocaust and the relevance of those lessons in today’s world.

This competition encourages MCC students to write plays for an audience, to provide MCC students a competitive venue for their scripts, to offer winning playwrights the opportunity to see their scripts performed as staged readings with an eye towards future play development, and to offer VaPA students the opportunity to participate in the new-play-development process. Three winning playwrights receive cash prizes. One winning playwright also will have his/her play submitted to a nationwide competition and performed at MuCCC on Atlantic Avenue as part of Rochester’s Annual College Theatre Festival. Scripts will be accepted for consideration beginning in September.